More than 66,000 people have been evacuated from Guantanamo, in Cuba’s far east, ahead of the imminent arrival of heavy rains that threaten a region already heavily hit by the hurricane Oscarlocal television announced on Sunday.
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The majority of evacuees in 7 of 10 municipalities in Guantánamo province, located nearly 1,000 km southeast of Havana, are in San Antonio del Sur (13,600) and Imías (more than 2,000), where Oscar caused historic floods and left 8 dead 15 days ago, according to television.
The Cuban Meteorological Institute warned on Sunday of the arrival of “showers, rain and thunderstorms towards the eastern end” of the country.
In addition, a low pressure area south of Jamaica, which could develop into a cyclonic formation in the next 48 hours, is also being monitored, he added.
“We are constantly monitoring the weather situation in Cuba and its possible evolution,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X. Oscara Category 1 hurricane that struck Cuba on October 20 before strengthening into a tropical storm, left Guantanamo with saturated soils and emptying reservoirs, increasing the risk of flooding in several municipalities in the province .
According to official figures, more than 12,000 homes, as well as roads and nearly 20,000 hectares of crops, mainly coffee, were damaged by the passage ofOscar.
Cuba is going through its worst crisis since the 1990s, marked by shortages of medicine and fuel, frequent power cuts, as well as an unprecedented wave of migration since the Castro revolution of 1959.
